[Game Thread] Together Again

[Chekken]

Note: Please read the first part of "At the Forge" before reading this next part. Otherwise, it might not make sense :P

The church is bustling with activity once again, as people have begun to snap out of the zombie-like trance which once captivated nearly half of the population in Black Grove. But just as you start to approach the church, you notice something odd: there are three figures in white robes speaking in hushed whispers just out of sight from the normal church-goers. To you, this seemed completely out of place, but the churchgoers were (for the most part, at least) completely ignoring the three figures as if they weren't even there. The three figures turn in your direction, but you have the drop on them.

(Roll a hide check!)

 

Natural 20!

Turin reacts quickly. He picks up a rock and tosses it near the men to distract them, and then pulls Emurian into a nearby alley. He places a finger to his mouth as a signal to Emurian and waits quietly for some sort of reaction from the men.

(Turin uses "Aid another". Emurian gets +2 to his hide check)

[Emurian]

Emurian walks with a moderate pace throughout Black Grove while looking around from left to right to the faces of the people he passes by. His facial expression remains to be stoic, a iron mask that betrays none of the emotions that the Dragenoid felt from within.

His mind had been digesting the information of the last day over and over again in the hope of unraveling more of the cryptic answers that he and Turin had received. A part of him couldn't help but contemplating about the significance of the discovery as it replayed the scene over and over again in his mind. The Paladin was quite sure by now that he could recite the words near perfectly. His thoughts had allowed him to gain a better understanding of the true meaning of the answers that they received but there was more to be discovered, more to be asked and most likely more to ponder about.

Like Turin his eyes registrered the three figures near the Church that stood out from the others. Unlike Turin though, he had no intention of hiding himself. The sudden pull at his arm from his companion nearly brought him out of balance as he felt his weight being pulled towards the alley. Throwing a confused look towards his companion he tightens his grip around his sword as he understood that Turin felt that something was wrong about these humanoids. Nonetheless the damage had already been done, without a warning the man wasn't prepared to move as silently as his companion which caused the sound of metal grinding upon stone to echo throughout the alley. The Paladin winced slightly in response to the noise, knowing immedeatly that he had blown their cover.

Sighing he speaks.

,,There is not much use to hiding anymore Turin, any decent trained person would have been able to hear the noise I made.''

The Paladin stepped into the open once more after speaking to show himself. He didn't like needing to sneak around, as a Paladin of St. Cuthbert he had no intention of hiding near his own church. Walking up towards the door the Dragenoid throws a wary gaze towards the threesome in order to try to see their faces before stepping inside.

Ooc: Hide result 0 + 2 from Turin = 2 >.> So much for the stealth approach.

[Chekken]

The hollow *clang* vibrates through the alley, attracting attention and confused gazes from several passerbys. This, combined with the fact that Turin had thrown a rock in the direction of the two men, meant that the men were most certainly aware of your presence. They turned towards you and, with a small jump, immediately made a plan. One of the figures points to another, and then points towards the back end of the church near the garden. White robes flap in the wind as a pair of brown boots decend quickly upon their destination. The figure who pointed (who appears to be some sort of leader) points in the direction of Turin and Emurian and begins walking towards them, moving swiftly...a little too quickly for a continentalist. The leader makes a low-pitched grunting noise, and the other figure heads towards the front of the church. With a slight sigh, Turin joined Emurian at the front of the church.

Before the figures leave, you catch the face of two of them. The leader is clearly a man, and it appears that one of the other figures is a woman. The last figure, the one who went behind the church, moved too quickly for you to see. The leader appears to be wearing some sort of white mask to cover his face. He is bald.

The leader is the first to approach Emurian. A gloved hand draws a steel scimitar from within the robe. Unlike many of the gang members and high-strung mercenaries you might find at the local tavern, this figure had an entirely different demeanour. The figure wasn't aggressive like a barbarian, nor was it trying to hide in the crowd as a thief would. It didn't hold it's nose up high like a mercenary, and it didn't seem to hold it down like a beggar. But you do know one thing: the nonchalant way in which the scimitar had been drawn deeply unsettles you. The voice it speaks in is definitely not human. It sounds like a human voice that had been toned into a set of tubular bells, giving the man a metallic and cold sounding mannerism when he spoke.

The mask moves up and down as the man speaks. "Why do you hide from us?" The man raises his scimitar towards the neck of Emurian, who (in most situations) would not be the ideal candidate for intimidation. However, as this man was roughly the same size of Emurian (perhaps a few inches smaller), the effect was made. "Tell me your name, or I will cut you to pieces. Are you Peroli?"

[Emurian]

Emurian simply stares hard at the man while his pupils are to be seen darting towards the rapier. Cocking his head sideways he deliberatly waits several moments to respond.

,,You got some nerve to threathen me in front of my own Church stranger, step aside so our Lord can receive my daily prayers or it will be your blood that flows on these streets. I am Emurian, Paladin of St. Cuthbert and thats all you should know about me. Courtesy demands that its your turn to introduce yourself, or do you shame yourself by not revealing your identity.''

The Dragenoid his eyes are to be seen blazing with fury at the threath which has been placed upon him. His fingernails nearly dig into his flesh as he tightens the grip around his sword once more. Not daring to look away the Warrior is at the edge of lashing out with his own massive blade in a instant should things turn bad.

Ooc: Ready action: Attack stranger in front of me if he makes a agressive move.

[Chekken]

The leader's eyes widen as Emurian introduces himself, and he practically jumps at the name. His calm demeanour wavers momentarily, but does not falter as the masked man lowers his scimitar and chuckles. "We know more than you think, Emurian. Paladin of St. Cuthbert...and the official spokesperson of the White Guard, I believe?" He smiles under the white mask: the only sign that he had shown of any emotion. "Though you oppose the will of the demon empress Aurora, I have no quarrel with you. My quarrel is with the traitor, Peroli. I am but a follower of our Lady."

The man circles around the two White Guards, but kept a watchful eye on Emurian's sword. Then he stops dead in his tracks and turns his head an inch or two. He shows a sudden, intense interest in the sword, but continues to clutch his weapon vigilantly and resumes pacing. "That's an interesting sword you have there, Emurian. It would look good above my mantelpiece."

Turin suddenly snaps at the man. "Place a single hand on him, and I'll have your head."

The man ignores Turin. "Is there something...important...about that sword?"

[Emurian]

Emurian sneers in response to the words.

,,Those words are easy to utter without having to show proof, you fail to amuse me stranger. Please send Avis my regards and tell him that I look forward to our next encounter. Now excuse me but I have business to attent to in the Church.''

Deliberatly ignoring the question of the masked man about his blade the Paladin continues to stare at him while trying to read from his body posture how the man reacts to the name. Like him, the Dragenoid was more then capable enough to sway away questions directed towards him while replying with a vague answer in response. Emurian would not give up information for free if he gained nothing in return and so the Paladin patiently waits. Conversations like these where nothing more like a game to him, one where he tried to gauge of how much truth the man his words held while at the same time denying his opponent the pleasure of substracting information from him. Truth to be told the man his patience started to run out by now as he saw little use in continuing the conversation. Instead, he waited for the stranger to back off so he could continue with the tasks that he had in mind at the start of the day.

[Chekken]

At the mention of Avis, the man smiles wider than ever and speaks once again in that metallic tone. "I find your efforts at stopping Master Avis quite amusing in and of themselves. So I suppose you could say that the feelings are mutual." The man spins his scimitar over in his hand. "Nevertheless, my friends, Avis looks forward to your next meeting with him. And should the impossible happen--that is, that you survive the fight without losing a limb--Master Odusai will sort you out. He is quite angry at one of your friends. I suppose you could guess who."

The cultist begins to walk away, and puts away his weapon. He, too, seems to be enjoying this game of deception. Once again, he assumes an expression of utter calmness. He is practically emotionless: uncaring for anything that happened next. "I would love to have the pleasure of killing you, but that task is best left for Avis. Go to your church and pray...while you still have the chance." The man released a frightening cackle as his boots hit the muddy path towards town. He passes Turin and Emurian.

Turin cracks his fists as the man passed, not daring to take his eyes off of the slit where the man's eyes would be. Oh, how he'd love to sink his fist into the man's face over and over again. But Turin had more respect than that for the rules and for the people of the town: besides, what good would violence do in a situation like this? So the dwarf simply stared at the man with his hand on his weapon in case the man spun around for a surprise attack, but he did not. He simply continued walking towards town as he had intended to before.

[Emurian]

The Paladin keeps his eyes locked upon the stranger as he walked away without giving a response. Emurian didn't care, for he knew that such a encounter would be inevitable in the long run when battling Aurora and her followers. The disciplined mind of the Warrior tells him to remain calm instead of allowing himself to be baited in a verbal response. In the end, he gained more information then he had allowed to slip from his own tongue which caused a slight smile to cross his face.

Looking towards Turin the Dragenoid notices the anger radiating from his companion. Laying his hand upon the Dwarf his shoulder he smiles while speaking in soft tones.

,,Do not allow his taunts to spurr you to taking rash actions Turin, hes not worth our time. We should continue with our business rather then allowing ourselves to be distracted from our true goal. Come my friend, I am sure that there are more pressing matters which need to be handled.''

The Holy Warrior goes silent after that while walking towards the Church once more. The silver scaled humanoid is to be seen biting his lip as his fears for the safety of Peroli his life grew by the second. He knew that the threath that the stranger had uttered was real, Peroli, a man of his religion was in danger and he was forced to help him according to his oath. Looking down at his hand the Warrior notices that his grip hasn't loosened by a inch yet, sighing he allows himself to relax while putting his mind back on the rails.

,,Now lets see what more we can find out about Aurora and her pets.'' he mutters more to himself then Turin as he steps through the frontdoors of the Church and enters the complex.

[Chekken]

Turin took Emurian's words to heart. "You're right. There are more important things to attend to. Thank you, my friend, for your wise words." Turin put his weapon away and, with one more glance towards the hooded man heading into town, he joined Emurian.

-----------------------

As Emurian and Turin head into the church, they notice a sign posted on the wooden double-doors.

 

BY ORDER OF THE MAYOR

Due to recent events, Mr. Peroli has been asked to step down as minister of the Church of Pelor and has been replaced by minister Mazia. Though she does not have much experience, Ms. Mazia has proven herself more than worthy of a position in the church until such time as the issues involving Mr. Peroli have been resolved. Ms. Mazia will be happy to speak to you about any questions or concerns you may have.

Signed,
Mayor Loki Bengaland

Turin looks at the letter with a surprised expression, and then smiles and chuckles to himself. "I knew Mazia was going places. Turns out that she's replaced Peroli as minister for a while. Here, read the letter." After Emurian reads the letter, Turin hurriedly speaks. "This isn't good. That means that Peroli isn't here, and by extension, that we can't protect him." Turin punches the wooden door. "What do we do? If we save Peroli, the hooded men might not be here and we'll miss our chance to interrogate them. But if we don't save Peroli, he might die!"

[Chekken]

Turin and Emurian hear footsteps behind them. Turin, being somewhat jumpy at the moment, turned and began to draw his weapon, but then realized with a gasp of relief that it was only Willow.

"Willow! I'm glad you're here. We have a problem: someone is about to assassinate the former minister of this church. We saw some people earlier in white cloaks, and we suspect that they're cultists who follow Aurora. They have some sort of relation with Avis and Odusai."

[Emurian]

Emurian patiently reads over the letter while his companion speaks out his thoughts. A part of him was glad for Mazia, the women seemed to posses the right qualities to lead the church. Even so there was a bitter aftertaste to the fact that Peroli had been replaced for Emurian had understood that Peroli had been forced to follow certain actions.

Nevertheless he needed to abide the law just like any other creature, shrugging off the negative feelings about Peroli his replacement the Paladin sets his mind on contemplating the whereabouts of Peroli. Turin his words confirmed that he wasn't the only one concerned about Peroli his safety, glancing sideways he speaks.

,,Perhaps Mazia knows about the whereabouts of Peroli. Its actually a good thing that she has taken over the church, it means that those hooded men aren't able to locate Peroli as long as hes gone hiding. ''

The sound of heavy footsteps causes the warrior to spin around on his heels. Within a instant there is a smile to be seen crossing on his face.

,,Willow, it seems that mister Peroli has stepped down and has been replaced by Mazia. There where men looking for him, men which work for the Knights. The situation is slowly spinning out of control. We need to find out Peroli his whereabouts, see if we can find out more about these strangers and go to see the device in the Church to substract more information from it. Im glad you choose to catch up with us as it seems that we can use every swordsarm that were able to get.''

[MystOtter]

"Sounds like it is a good thing I came to check on you two." Willow gave a lighthearted laugh.

She knew they were doing an investigation but did not expect it to turn into a guard mission. From her time with Big Albert, Willow was relaxed that things were better for Black Grove. But this completely ruined that image.

"Let us make sure Black Grove is free of the knights."

[Emurian]

,,I wish it was that simple Willow, I doubt however that the Knights will reveal themselves unless they want to. Their minions are also infesting Black Grove and this is something we can't allow. We should inform the mayor about this later on in the day and ask for permission to act on Black Grove its behalf if we think that we located one of the Knights their pets. The last thing I want to do is to break the law and act out of my own, a Paladin his jurisdiction can only go so far. That hooded men we encountered just before seemed to be quite full of himself, he even dared to threathen me with pointing his blade on me, I was actually hoping that he would push through with his threath so I could retaliate right away but he seemed smart enough to back off and leave it at a verbal threath for now.

That being said, there are more things to be done for us today. Lets head inside and see what this device can tell us about Aurora and her Knights.''

Bowing slightly while stretching out with one arm towards the Church the Paladin gestures to the Warrior women to take up the lead. His smile remained despite the situation at hand.

,,Ladies first.'' he says in a slight mocking tone to ''jest'' Willow before following her inside to see what goes on inside the church.

[Chekken]

The church is even more full than the day Turin had first visited. If you had asked him, Turin would tell you of the many voices in the church: the prayers to different Gods, in different languages, and in different ways. Mazia stood at the front of the church speaking to a group of no less than three people. She was adorned in close-fitting, golden priest's robes with the symbol of a sun on the front (the holy symbol of Pelor). Her hair was tied back in a pony tail as she consoled a frightened-looking elven woman who was clutching a teddy bear in her arms. Catching bits and pieces of the speech between them, you realize that she must have lost her son.

There is another familiar face in the church. At the front of the church near Mazia is Illya, who is quietly playing an ocarina, stopping once in a while to recall the rest of the song. Mazia is trying to give him signs to move away, but he doesn't seem to catch them (that, or he's ignoring her).

There's no sign of the white-hooded cultists. However, the door to the basement (and by extension, the church catacombs) is half-open.

[MystOtter]

Reluctantly Willow lead he trio into the church. She knew Emurian was just being a gentleman but that didn't stop her from not wanting to be the first in. Just going inside a church bothered the warrior, she also didn't understand how people could honor one deity over all of the rest. Willow respected all of the deities. More so than anything else, Willow felt out of place inside churches.

She poked Turin is the should, "looks like Mazia is doing good. Also extremely busy."